'Forum' by the Pennsylvania Playhouse opens Friday

Pseudolus (Gary Boyer, left) and Hysterium (Bill Mutimer) in 'A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum' by the Pennsylvania Playhouse, opening Friday.

Pseudolus (Gary Boyer, left) and Hysterium (Bill Mutimer) in 'A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum' by the Pennsylvania Playhouse, opening Friday. (SHARON K. MERKEL / SPECIAL TO THE MORNING CALL)

When Stephen Sondheim’s raucous comedy “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” opens Friday at Pennsylvania Playhouse, no one will be more excited than Lori Colacito, who is making her Lehigh Valley directorial debut.

“This show has a special history for me,” Colacito says. “It’s the third time I’ve been involved with this show. It is the perfect comedy.”

“A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” debuted on Broadway in 1962 and won six Tony awards, including best musical.

The improbable story takes place in ancient Rome and follows the clever slave Pseudolus, who wants to earn his freedom from his young master, Hero, by winning him the hand of Philia, a beautiful courtesan-in-training.

Colacito took a long hiatus from the stage, then eight years ago was lured back to play the role of the virginal Philia in “Forum” at the Little Theatre of Wilkes-Barre, where she was living at the time.

“I had such a wonderful time with the show,” she says. “I love the pacing of it.”

Four years ago, she got the chance to direct the show at the Music Box Theatre in Swoyersville and again had a great experience with the material.

The following year, she and her family moved to Easton, so her daughter could attend Lehigh Valley Charter High School for the Arts.

“In Wilkes Barre, I had 16 shows I directed under my belt, but it’s hard to jump right into directing in a new place,” she says.

So she dipped her toe into the Valley’s theater community by acting in a production of “Rumors” at the playhouse in 2016. She so enjoyed her experience, when she saw it the playhouse was looking for a director for “Forum,” she decided to take the plunge.

She says what makes each production of the show unique is the cast, and she has a great cast for this show.

“I was very fortunate to get the right type of people auditioning,” she says. “They all bring their own sense of comedy.”

Colacito tapped Gary Boyer, whom she had worked with in “Rumors,” for the main role of Pseudolus. Bill Mutimer plays the household’s dour head slave Hysterium. Colacito says the two men have great on-stage chemistry.

“Their delivery is so sharp and smart,” she says. “Bill and Gary are so good together.”

The show also stars Thomas Kennebeck as the naive Hero and Jessica Mulligan as the dimwitted Philia.

“The thing I love about this show is the music is simple and fun, so actors can concentrate on the intricate blocking and quick movement,” Colacito says. “The music enhances the comedy but doesn’t take center stage. Audiences can just get wrapped up in the ridiculousness of it all.”

She warns some of the humor is on the mature side since a lot of the action happens around a house of courtesans, although it is all very much tongue-in- cheek.

She says there isn’t much dancing but choreographer Alesia F. Dietrich worked with the six actresses playing courtesans to teach them “courtesan dances.”

She says each courtesan — who have names like Vibrata (Lindsay Kochesky), Tintinabula (Jessica Brown) and Panacea (Julisa Trinidad) — have distinct personality traits and their dance and costumes reflect that.

“We found two girls as close as we could get to play twins, and of course, they dress alike,” Colacito says.

She says the show only has one big production number in “Comedy Tonight,” which opens the show and brings the whole cast on stage.

Another humorous song, "Everybody Ought to Have a Maid," is sung by four of the men and has a vaudeville feel.

Other songs from the show include the ballads “Love, I Hear” and “Lovely,” which has a hilarious reprise in the second act.

The set by Brett Oliveira reflects the playfulness of the show with three brightly colored houses next to each other, fronted by Roman columns.

“You walk in and feel like you’re on a street in Rome,” Colacito says. “It’s over-the-top bold.”

The cast also includes Alan Shannon-Breslin as Senex, Trish Kane Steele as Domina, John Corl as Marcus Lycus, Steven Schmid as Miles Gloriosus, Tony Kohl as Erroneous, and John Bertone, James Wolfe and Senoll Donleyover as the Proteans.

Colacito, whose daughter graduated from the Charter High School this year, says the family is now hooked on the Lehigh Valley.

“We love it so we stayed,” she says. “I’m very happy to get to do what I love to do, close to home.”

Act 1 DeSales University Theatre opens its 49th Main Stage season with William Inge’s classic comedy “Picnic,” considered one of the great American plays of the last century.

Inge won the Pulitzer for this provocative story that takes place during a sweltering summer in Kansas 1953.

“It’s an exquisite play operating on many levels simultaneously,” says producing artistic director John Bell. “Among the play’s themes of awakened sensuality and derailed dreams lies a theatrical experience that shifts amid the whiff of romance and the shadow of regret.”

On Labor Day weekend in a small town, the women are preparing for the annual picnic. The group consists of middle-aged widows Flo Owens, the protective mother of two teenage daughters, and Helen Potts, who cares for her elderly, invalid mother, and Flo’s boarder, Rosemary Sydney, a spinster schoolteacher.

When a handsome young drifter named Hal Carter appears, he captures the women’s attention. In the next 24 hours, hearts are broken and lives are changed as Hal’s charming yet dangerous vitality pits the longings of youth against the complacency of middle age.

“The themes this play explores — choices and consequences, freedom, love and passion, loneliness — are every bit as vital to our world as when this play won the Pulitzer Prize,” says Steven Dennis, director and associate professor of theater. “The actors, designers and entire production team are pulling together to implement a vision that will help us lens this story for our 2018 audience. You may have more in common than you thought with these situations and characters.”

Inge was inspired to try play-writing after seeing Tennessee Williams’ “The Glass Menagerie.” In addition to “Picnic,” Inge also wrote “Come Back Little Sheba,” “Bus Stop” and “The Dark at the Top of the Stairs,” and critics hailed him as another Tennessee Williams. His last work, “Splendor in the Grass,” won Best Screenplay at the 1961 Academy Awards.

“William Inge often commented that he believed his upbringing led to his understanding of human behavior,” Bell says. “People who grow up in small towns get to know each other so much more closely than they do in cities. The intimacy of this small-town environment has resulted in Inge having created some of the most unique and fully-shaped characters of the 20th century, and these characters are great studies for our young actors.”

“Picnic” gave Paul Newman his Broadway debut. An unknown at the time, Newman wanted the leading role of Hal, but director Joshua Logan did not think Newman was physically large and athletic enough for the role, and cast Ralph Meeker instead. Newman played Hal's former college roommate Alan Seymour, but eventually got to take over the lead role.

Dennis and Bell will host a “Page to Stage” dinner talking about the process of directing and producing “Picnic” at 6 p.m. Oct. 6. The cost for dinner, including bar, is $32. Call 610-282-3192 to make a reservation.

The 8 p.m. Oct. 6 performance will feature open captioning for patrons who are deaf or hard of hearing and audio descriptions for patrons who are blind or visually impaired. Tickets are half-price for patrons using these services. Call box office manager Nicole Moyer at 610-282-3654, ext. 1, for information.

Dennis and the cast will talk to the audience after the 2 p.m. Sept. 30 performance. A post-show talk will also be after the 9:45 a.m. Oct. 2 performance.

Julia Baker as the Young Woman and Christian Gutierrez as the Man in the Muhlenberg College production of the drama 'Machinal,' running Sept. 27-30.

Julia Baker as the Young Woman and Christian Gutierrez as the Man in the Muhlenberg College production of the drama 'Machinal,' running Sept. 27-30. (/ CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)

Muhlenberg’s ‘Machinal’ ripped from 1928 headlines

“Machinal,” Sophie Treadwell’s rarely produced masterpiece about a young woman who murders her husband in an effort to escape from a desperate situation, kicks off Muhlenberg College’s main stage theater season Thursday, Sept. 27.

Based on the true story of the 1928 murder trial of Ruth Snyder, “Machinal” was written almost immediately after the trial concluded. Treadwell covered the trial as a journalist, and was among the first playwrights to meld journalism with dramatic writing.

“‘Machinal’ is the story of a young woman struggling, in increasingly desperate ways, for freedom in a male-dominated society which demands her constant submission,” says Lou Jacob, director and Muhlenberg Baker Artist-in-Residence.

Jacob says he was drawn to the play and finds Treadwell to be “a fascinating woman.”

“She herself is part of the reason why I’m excited to bring the play to Muhlenberg,” Jacob says. “She was far ahead of her time as a passionate suffragette, as an advocate for birth control rights and women’s sexual freedom and expression.”

While “Machinal” was well-received in its original production, Jacob says the play and the playwright fell into obscurity in the latter part of the 20th century and only recently found audiences that appreciate the play’s value.

“The play inspired generations of playwrights and theater makers with its style and hybrid of journalistic realism and a hyper-theatrical structure,” Jacob says.

The cast of 15 delves into challenging subject matter over the course of the play, which spans six years in the life of its protagonist. “Machinal” contains implied instances of sexual assault, and is recommended for mature audiences.

Senior Julia Baker plays the unnamed young woman at the center of the story.

“The play brings individuality to the real-life case that may have silenced this woman, that may have just characterized her in the stereotypical way history remembers women,” she says.

Jacob says he thinks the play feels surprisingly contemporary for something written 90 years ago.

“The play is emotionally charged — real and felt and utterly prescient,” he says. “It’s certainly about the 1920s, but it has some interesting things to say about our current moment, which is not entirely unlike the 1920s.”

Jacob has directed dozens of professional theater productions, including the world premiere of Sam Shepard’s “The God of Hell,” starring Tim Roth and Randy Quaid. He is also a member of the Tony Awards Nominating Committee.

Post-apocalyptic vaudeville ‘Dog Act’ at Lehigh

Lehigh University’s Department of Theatre’s opens its season with an intriguing post-apocalyptic play written by Liz Duffy Adams, the school’s Theodore U. Horger ’61 Artist-in-Residence in the Performing Arts.

“Dog Act” follows Zetta Stone, a traveling performer, and her companion Dog, a young man undergoing a voluntary species demotion, as they walk through the wilderness of the former Northeast U.S. with their troupe. They are heading toward a gig in China — if they can find it and survive the trip. The show is directed by Pam Pepper and features Lehigh professor Kashi Johnson as Zeta.

“ ‘Dog Act’ is aligned with this year’s theme of “Illusion vs. Reality” by virtue of its irreverent prediction of a post-apocalyptic future when language and morality have eroded,” says Erica Hoelscher, theater department chairwoman. “Characters turn to storytelling, ritual and play as implements to redefine right and wrong, and to rebuild relationships with humor, tenderness, and with fire.”

The cast includes Daniel Enrique Palomeque as Dog, Leah Canel as Vera Similitude, Dom Ocampo as Jo-Jo, The Bald-Faced Liar, Boniface Mwangangi Kyalo as Coke, and Vaughan Kramer as Bud.

The show contains mature language.

Adams also will teach a course in playwriting in the spring semester, and write an original play to be premiered at Lehigh in fall 2019. Adams’ play “Or” premiered Off Broadway at Women’s Project Theater and has been produced 60 times, including at the Magic Theater and Seattle Rep.

She’s a New Dramatists alumna and has received a Women of Achievement Award, Lillian Hellman Award, New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, Will Glickman Award, Weston Playhouse Music-Theater Award and MacDowell Colony residencies.